Higher Ed Pulse

Pulse Check: The Alignment Gap (Beyond the Org Chart) — Pt 1

Episode Summary

Welcome to the debut episode of this new Pulse Check series, The Alignment Gap: Beyond The Org Chart. Host Jenny Petty is joined by Dr. Marcus Collins, Michigan Ross professor and author of For the Culture and the upcoming Good Soil.

Episode Notes

Welcome to the debut episode of this new Pulse Check series, The Alignment Gap: Beyond The Org Chart. 

This is Part 1: Why Culture, Not Structure, Is The Real Operating System. Host Jenny Petty is joined by Dr. Marcus Collins, Michigan Ross professor and author of For the Culture and the upcoming Good Soil. 

We open the series with a history lesson that reframes everything: the org chart wasn't born in a boardroom. It was invented after a 1940s train collision in Massachusetts, drawn to fix a communication breakdown between crews sharing the same track — and it looked nothing like the pyramid we use today. It was a tree, built bottom-up from the people doing the work. Somewhere along the way we inverted it, and now we default to structure first, hoping strategy falls out of it — backwards from what the research actually tells us: structure should follow strategy, not stand in for it.

From there, Dr. Collins takes the conversation somewhere more interesting than reporting lines. Using the language of theater — "front stage" and "backstage" — he makes the case that culture is the real operating system underneath any org chart, and that misalignment happens the moment what an institution says (front stage) outpaces what it actually practices (backstage). We talk about what it looks like when that gap closes almost entirely, what belief has to do with segmentation and brand strength, and why a CMO with no authority over HR, budget, or academic affairs isn't powerless — because leadership, done right, is influence without authority. It's a conversation that starts with a train wreck and ends with a working definition of what alignment actually requires: shared belief, demonstrated consistently, from the top down.

What we cover:

• The real origin of the org chart — and how a communication fix became a symbol of control
• "Structure follows strategy": why most institutions do it in reverse
• Front stage vs. backstage: how culture becomes the tell when belief and behavior don't match
• Belief as the actual unit of alignment — and why segmentation, brand strength, and trust all trace back to it
• Leading without authority: why a CMO's job is influence and inspiration, not control

Purchase Dr. Marcus Collins’ new book, Good Soil here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/marcus-collins/good-soil/9781668662199/